How Personalisation is Coming to Sextech
There’s something special about a product that’s made exactly to your taste — whether it’s a custom dildo in your favourite colours, or a piece of art that you’ve made yourself, more people are searching for products with the personal touch.
For the last few years, marketing publications have been bigging up the trend for personalised products. In 2015, Marketing Week highlighted campaigns from people like Coke and Marmite:
“Perhaps the most well known example is Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign. It launched in the UK back in April 2013, and saw Coca-Cola grow its Facebook community by 3.5% and globally by 6.8%. … More recent examples include Marmite, which is giving consumers the chance to personalise a Marmite jar with their or someone else’s name. The jars are available to buy from 9 November on the brand’s Facebook page.”
TechRadar saw the trend for personalisation in data too: alongside personalised products, people also want an individual shopping experience. When they visit a website, they want you to remember their likes and dislikes, and tailor the products accordingly.
Naturally when it comes to sex, personalisation is even more valuable. Whether it’s custom products made to someone’s specifications, products which can learn your preferences, or even just sex toys being offered in a variety of colours so people can choose one that matches their style.
Personalised Products: Sex Toys
For sex toy fanatic Little Spoon (@Lil_Spoon_ on Twitter), personalisation (or at least having a sex toy that matches her style) can be the difference between something she uses regularly or a toy that sits gathering dust.
“I think looks and colour are a really important aspect of any product (not just sex toys) as I know with me personally, if I think it looks cute I’m more inclined to buy it, get it out and actually use it. Being able to tailor a toy to fit my own style/aesthetic to me is the ultimate luxury and again the more personal a toy feels to me, the more likely I am to use it. Personalised toys that look just how I want them to just feel so much more special than a run of the mill pink or purple generic dildo.”
And for her, one of the most important things is colour and look:
“I’m an alternative chick and having blue hair is kind of my trademark (and has been for the last four years), so much so that I even dye my pubic hair to match! I’m probably not totally unique but dying my bush makes me feel a little bit special and original.
“With toys I will always go for the rare green or blue options, just because they are my favourite colours and of course match my hair! I’m also drawn to black and silver as at 24 I’m still a goth and that colour combo is just so sexy (eg. my black Doxy). I recently specifically commissioned a dildo from Godemiche in yellow and orange because I don’t own any other toys in those colours and it completes the full spectrum of colours in my collection (yes, I’m aware how obsessive that is, but it does look pretty rad).”
Personalised Products: Created By You
Coming up with custom products isn’t always just about stamping someone’s name on it, or making a product to their specs. There’s a notable rise in companies which offer consumers the chance to make their own sex toys — or even unique pieces of art.
Eline Van der Velden (@misshollanduk on twitter) is a comedian and video producer with a pretty special painting hanging on her wall. Using a kit from LoveIsArt, she and her partner created a painting that gives an intimate (if abstract) view into their sex life.
The kits come with canvas, paint and directions: you and your partner cover yourself with dabs of paint and then have sex right on the canvas. The resulting prints are beautiful and unusual — and make a great talking point. Eline and her partner show theirs off at every possible opportunity:
“Sometimes called our sex painting, sometimes just ‘home-made’ painting, to the parents and more conservatives. It’s amazingly easy, it’s hard to mess up, so I’d really recommend it to the less artistically inclined as well. We placed it down in the kitchen on the plastic sheet, lit some candles and the most fun part was having to run up the stairs with the plastic foot covers and trying to get all the paint off again.”
And it’s not just art — sex toy companies like KinkCraft are also helping people get to grips with their inner creative. KinkCraft offer kits with all the basic materials you need to create your own flogger or cane. They run live events and workshops where they help people create their own kinky products.
When it comes to your individual sex life, customisation might feel like it’s a bit too personal at the moment: after all, not everyone would feel comfortable getting a sex toy made to their exact, detailed specifications.
But products like the Love Is Art kit, which allow you to create custom products at home, could mean that even more timid consumers can have a piece of custom sex art in their homes.
What’s more, as it becomes quicker and simpler to produce dildos in a variety of shapes and colours — and even ones which can be ‘trained’ to produce patterns tailored to your pleasure — it’s likely that your bedroom in the future will be perfectly tailored to you.
